# Jacques-Antoine Dulaure

Jacques-Antoine Dulaure (born on December 3, 1755, in Clermont-Ferrand and died on August 18, 1835, in Paris) was a French archaeologist, historian, and politician.

## Biography

Dulaure was educated at Clermont College, where he studied drawing and mathematics. Before beginning his literary career, he successively pursued architecture and topography. He moved to Paris in October 1779 and was admitted as a student under the Jean-Baptiste Rondelet, who, after the death of Soufflot, was tasked with completing the works on the Church of Sainte-Geneviève, particularly reinforcing the pillars that seemed unable to support the dome. One day, while Dulaure was taking vertical measurements inside the building, walking along high cornices, he became dizzy and nearly died on the stone floor. This experience soured him on architecture, and he decided to become a geographer-engineer instead.
He worked under the direction of a chief engineer on constructing a proposed canal between Bordeaux and Bayonne. However, the project failed due to the American War of Independence. Dulaure then turned to teaching geometry and invented an instrument for surveying plans and topographic maps. In 1781, he submitted his invention to the Academy of Sciences, where Rossut and Cousin examined it and gave a favorable report.

### Literary beginnings

The following year, Dulaure embarked on a literary career that would last over half a century. His first writings were critiques of several Parisian monuments, especially the Odéon Theatre, which had just been built on the former grounds of the Hôtel de Condé. He wrote a critique in which he made the building’s boxes, decorations, and walls engage in a dialogue to reason and criticize themselves. Inspired by early aerostatic experiments, in 1784, he published a short piece titled Retour de voyage dans la Lune (Return from a Trip to the Moon), preceding Beffroy de Reigny, the "Cousin Jacques," who launched his journal Les Lunes the following year.
Between 1785 and 1786, Dulaure appears to have been responsible for reviewing theatrical productions in Le Courrier lyrique et amusant, ou Passe-temps des toilettes by Dufrénoy, in which he also introduced archaeological content.
In 1786, with his essay on Pogonology, he delved into what would now be considered a psycho-sociological analysis of beards, advocating for them in an era when being clean-shaven was fashionable.
He then published several works in which his detestation of the abuses, injustices, and false doctrines of the Ancien Régime became apparent. Notable among these were Description de Paris and Nouvelle Description des curiosités de Paris (1785), which combined travel recommendations for foreigners with criticisms of the monarchy, as well as Description de Paris et de ses environs and Singularités historiques (1st ed., 1786). Harshly attacked in L'Année littéraire [fr], Dulaure responded with a vigorous rebuttal.
He directed the writing of an extensive Description de la France par provinces (1788-1789, six volumes), but the onset of the Revolution, which he supported, led him to halt this work. Dulaure then entered politics through pamphlets and periodic writings published over nearly three years. In 1790, he launched and wrote Les Évangélistes du jour, a short-lived journal with 16 issues, described as a "heavy and ineffective catapult" against the authors of Les Actes des Apôtres. Then, from August 11, 1791, to August 25, 1793, he published Le Thermomètre du jour, a political journal, at times collaborating with Barthélemy Chaper (1766-1825). It was first printed by Langlois fils, then by Anne Félicité Colombe.

## Deputy
### National Convention

The constitutional monarchy established by the Constitution of September 3, 1791, ended with the events of August 10, 1792, when Breton and Marseillais federates, along with insurgents from Parisian suburbs, stormed the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI was deposed and imprisoned in the Temple.
In September 1792, Jacques-Antoine Dulaure was elected as the twelfth and final deputy for the Puy-de-Dôme department in the National Convention.
He sat with the Girondins. During the trial of Louis XVI, he voted for the king’s execution, rejecting both an appeal to the people and a suspension of the sentence. On April 13, 1793, he was absent during the vote on the indictment of Jean-Paul Marat. On May 28, he voted in favor of restoring the Commission of Twelve. In the spring of 1793, he published an address to his constituents. On August 8, in a petition read to the Convention, Simone Évrard, Marat’s widow, denounced "the most cowardly of all scribblers, Carra, Ducos, and Dulaure."
Starting in September 1793, Dulaure withdrew to the Sainte-Perrine monastery in Chaillot with his fellow Girondin Jean-Augustin Pénières [fr] (deputy for Corrèze). He was not included in the arrest decrees of May 31-June 2 or in the October 3 decree issued by Jean-Pierre-André Amar, rapporteur of the Committee of General Security. However, on October 21, 1793 (30 Vendémiaire, Year II), Amar ordered his indictment, claiming that "due to an unintentional error, he had not been included in the original decree." With the help of fellow outlawed Girondins Joseph Bonet de Treyches (deputy for Haute-Loire), Louis-Alexandre Devérité [fr] (deputy for Somme), and Étienne Joseph Ferroux [fr] (deputy for Jura), he fled to Switzerland.
In December 1794 (Frimaire, Year III), following a motion by his fellow Puy-de-Dôme deputy Jean-Baptiste-Benoît Monestier [fr], Dulaure was reinstated in the National Convention alongside other deputies who had been arrested for signing the protest against the events of June 2. In April 1795 (Germinal, Year III), he was sent on a mission to the arms factories of Tulle and Bergerac to replace deputy Pierre Paganel [fr] (deputy for Lot-et-Garonne) but was recalled in July (Messidor).

### Council of Five Hundred

Dulaure was re-elected as a deputy under the Directory by the departments of Corrèze, Dordogne, and Puy-de-Dôme, representing the latter in the Council of Five Hundred. He was selected by lot to remain in office until Prairial, Year V. In Germinal, Year VI, Puy-de-Dôme re-elected him as a deputy for the third time. In the Council, he stood out for his reflections on public education.

## After the Coup of 18 Brumaire

Following the coup of 18 Brumaire, Dulaure, who had shouted, "Down with the dictator!" abandoned politics and returned to private life to focus on his historical studies. However, in 1808, he obtained a position as a sub-chief in a financial administration, which became necessary after a Parisian notary holding all his fortune went bankrupt.
In 1804, he joined Jacques Cambry, Mangourit, and Éloi Jouhanneau in founding the Académie Celtique, the predecessor of the Société des Antiquaires de France, and he drafted the first ethnographic questionnaire applied to France.

## Works

His numerous works relate to Paris, France, and the Revolution. His most significant work is Histoire civile, physique et morale de Paris, filled with curious research and little-known facts. The book denounces abuses by kings and the clergy, provoking attacks from supporters of the Ancien Régime.
* Signature of Jacques-Antoine Dulaure - National ArchivesPogonologie, ou histoire philosophique de la barbe [Pogonology, or the philosophical history of the beard] (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Le Jay. 1786.
* Réclamation d'un Citoyen contre une nouvelle enceinte de Paris, élevée par les fermiers généraux [Complaint by a Citizen against a new enclosure in Paris, raised by the tax farmers] (in French). 1787.
* Description des principaux lieux de France [Description of the main locations in France] (in French). Vol. 6. Paris: Lejay. 1789.
* Histoire critique de la noblesse depuis le commencement de la monarchie jusqu'à nos jours [Critical history of the nobility from the beginning of the monarchy to the present day] (in French). Paris: Guillot. 1790.
* Liste des noms des ci-devant nobles, nobles de race, robins, prélats, financiers, intrigants, et de tous les aspirants à la noblesse ou escrocs d'icelle, avec des notes sur leurs familles [List of the names of the aforementioned nobles, thoroughbred nobles, robins, prelates, financiers, schemers, and all those aspiring to nobility or swindling it, with notes on their families] (in French). Paris: Garnery. 1790.
* Vie privée des ecclésiastiques, prélats et autres fonctionnaires publics qui n'ont point prêté leur serment sur la Constitution civile du clergé [Privacy of clergymen, prelates and other public officials who have not sworn the Civil Constitution of the Clergy] (in French). Paris: Garnery. 1791.
* Étrennes à la Noblesse : ou Précis historique et critique sur l'origine des ci-devant ducs, comtes, barons etc., monseigneurs et grandeurs, etc [Étrennes à la Noblesse: or Historical and critical precis on the origin of the former dukes, counts, barons etc., lords and grandees, etc.] (in French). London, Paris: J. Thomas. 1791.
* Des Cultes qui ont précédé et amené l'idolâtrie : ou l'adoration des figures humaines [Cults that preceded and led to idolatry: or the worship of human figures] (in French). Paris: Fournier frères. 1805.
* Des Divinités génératrices : ou du culte du Phallus chez les anciens et les modernes, des cultes du dieu de Lampsaque, de Pan, de Vénus, etc [Generative Deities: or the Cult of the Phallus in the ancient and the modern, the cults of the god of Lampsacus, Pan, Venus, etc.] (in French). Paris: Dentu. 1805.
* Histoire abrégée des différents cultes [Abridged history of the different religions] (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris: Guillaume. 1825.
* Crimes et forfaits de la noblesse et du clergé depuis le commencement de la monarchie jusqu'à nos jours [Crimes and outrages of the nobility and clergy from the beginning of the monarchy to the present day] (in French). Paris.
* Causes secrètes des excès de la Révolution : ou Réunion de témoignages qui prouvent que la famille des Bourbons, les chefs de l'émigration, sont les instigateurs de la mort de Louis XVI, du régime de la Terreur et des maux qui ont désolé la France avant et pendant la session de la Convention [Secret Causes of the Excesses of the Revolution: or Collection of testimonies proving that the Bourbon family, the leaders of the émigré community, were the instigators of the death of Louis XVI, of the Reign of Terror and of the evils that devastated France before and during the Convention] (in French). Paris: Béchet. 1815.
* Esquisses historiques des principaux événemens de la Révolution française, depuis la convocation des États-Généraux jusqu'au rétablissement de la maison de Bourbon [Historical sketches of the main events of the French Revolution, from the convening of the Estates-General to the restoration of the House of Bourbon] (in French). Paris: Baudouin frères. 1823–1825.
* Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris depuis les premiers temps historiques jusqu'à nos jours [Physical, civil and moral history of Paris from the earliest historical times to the present day] (in French). Paris: Guillaume. 1829.
* Histoire physique, civile et morale des environs de Paris, depuis les premiers temps historiques jusqu'à nos jours [Physical, civil and moral history of the surroundings of Paris, from the earliest historical times to the present day] (in French). Paris: Guillaume. 1825–1828.
* Histoire de la révolution française, depuis 1814 jusqu'à 1830 [History of the French Revolution, from 1814 to 1830] (in French). Paris: Poiré. 1838.
* "La Fin de l'Histoire de la Restauration" [The End of the History of the Restoration]. Histoire de la Révolution de 1830 [History of the Revolution of 1830]. Bibliothèque d'histoire (in French). Paris: Degorce-Cadot. 1872.
* Mémoires de Louvet avec une introduction par E. Maron. Mémoires de Dulaure avec une introduction par M. L. de La Sicotière [Mémoires de Louvet with an introduction by E. Maron. Mémoires de Dulaure with an introduction by M. L. de La Sicotière] (in French). Paris: Poulet-Malassis. 1862. pp. 255–452.